Hot Topics:

Daily dish

The Lowell Sun

Updated:
09/08/2016 07:38:16 AM EDT

JACKIE IN VENICE: Actress Natalie Portman appears Wednesday at the Venice Film Festival in Italy, where her latest film, Jackie, is being shown. The movie follows Jacqueline Kennedy in the immediate aftermath of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. ANSA

'Jersey Boys' to close on Broadway

"Jersey Boys," the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical based on the Four Seasons' career and harmonies, has finally hit a sour note -- it's closing in January after 11 years.

Producers said Tuesday the show will hold its final performance on Jan. 15 after 4,642 shows at the August Wilson Theatre. It is the 12th-longest running show in Broadway history.

The musical, which opened in 2005, tells the story of Bob Gaudio, Frankie Valli, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi and features 20 Four Seasons songs, including "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" and "Oh, What a Night."

It won the Tony for best musical, a Grammy Award for best cast album and has been seen by over 13 million people across the world and grossed over $2 billion worldwide and been seen by an estimated 24 million people in 11 countries. A film adaptation by Clint Eastwood came out in 2015 but failed to live up to the buzz.

Michael David, a "Jersey Boys" producer, said in 2011 that the show's popularity is like a theatrical lightning strike -- unpredictable and hard to replicate. It has attracted families and couples, fans of the music, people drawn to the true story and those who like the rags-to-riches tale. And it attracted men, an elusive Broadway target.

The show has in the past few years seen a gradual decline in ticket sales.

Advertisement

Last week, it pulled in about $540,000 over eight performances, a typical haul for the past few months but far less than its $1,150,000 potential. The last time it broke the $600,000 mark was April.

"Dancing with the Stars" star Mark Ballas will be the final actor to take on the iconic role of Frankie Valli, making his Broadway debut in the show on Oct. 18.

Kristin Chenoweth to do Broadway concerts

"Glee" and "Wicked" star Kristin Chenoweth is returning to Broadway this fall for a series of concerts celebrating the history of the Great White Way in what she vows will be a different show each time because the songs will change every night.

"I'm going to do my best to represent our community," she said Tuesday by phone, "and just as you can imagine, I'm going to try to do it all. So, if you would go ahead and start your prayers, that would be amazing."

The Tony- and Emmy-winner will star in "My Love Letter to Broadway" from Nov. 2-13 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. Chenoweth said she's been putting the show together in her head for months -- "actually it's my whole life, if I'm being honest," she said -- and the title came easily. "Then there are no rules. I can sing pretty much anything because my favorite thing is Broadway. I have been raised on music by Rodgers and Hart, and Bernstein, Porter and Gershwin, but there's also now 'Hamilton' and 'Wicked."'

Chenoweth was speaking from her hometown of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, where she made a donation to the public school system's music and arts programs, hoping to reverse fiscal cuts. Later, she was to host a master class at the Broken Arrow Performing Arts Center, mentoring 10 students from high school and college.

While she wouldn't reveal her specific Broadway song lists, Chenoweth did say that "Popular," her signature tune from "Wicked," will be performed. "I've discovered if I don't sing 'Popular' I could be shot, especially in the South," she joked. "So I'm pretty sure that will show up."

"Every night will be different," she said. "You will come to see the show on one night -- on a Tuesday -- and on Saturday it will be different. And that will be the most fun part as an artist for me. No audience will see the same show."

Chenoweth, whose TV credits include "The West Wing," ''The Good Wife" and "Pushing Daisies," was last on Broadway in the 2015 revival of "On the Twentieth Century," for which she got a Tony nomination. Her film credits include "Bewitched," ''The Pink Panther" and "RV."

The singer and actress later this month will release her next album, "The Art of Elegance," a 13-track CD with classics like "A House is Not a Home," "Skylark" and "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered."

Welcome to your discussion forum: Sign in with a Disqus account or your social networking account for your comment to be posted immediately, provided it meets the guidelines. (READ HOW.)
Comments made here are the sole responsibility of the person posting them; these comments do not reflect the opinion of The Sun. So keep it civil.